Whole Foods sale gives Amazon two Sarasota storefronts

Even with all the grocery growth we’ve seen in Southwest Florida, I wouldn’t have expected an Amazon-owned store here in anytime soon.

The company’s two groceries, AmazonFresh Pickup, are more than 3,000 miles away in Seattle. Its convenience store model, AmazonGo, is still in beta testing.

Amazon is a long way off physically and logistically from planning a move into Southwest Florida like a surge of grocers — Lucky’s Market, Earth Fare, Aldi, Walmart Neighborhood Market and Sprouts Farmers Market — have all done in the past year or so.

But just like Amazon does with its one-day and two-day shipping, it’s sped up the delivery process.

We’ll likely have two Amazon-owned grocery stores here by the end of the year.

The online retail giant rocked the grocery industry Friday when it announced plans to acquire Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market. That $13.7 billion deal provides the brick-and-mortar grocery industry’s biggest threat: 430 stores to mold and innovate with as Amazon sees fit. The deal puts Amazon’s pockets behind the 13-year-old Whole Foods in downtown Sarasota and the chain’s coming market at Honore Avenue and University Parkway. The sale is expected to close by the end of this year, which could mean the new Sarasota store could be among the first to open under the new ownership.

It’s hard to know what Amazon-owned grocery stores will look like. The online retail giant hasn’t made any formal announcements about what it plans to change. We know the grocer’s headquarters will stay in Austin and that John Mackey, the company’s co-founder and CEO, is keeping his job. The new owner, too, is planning to hang on to the grocer’s brand.

But Amazon just doesn’t do things the way traditional retailers do, and that’s why this buy is really jolting the industry.

The online retail giant frequently touts its focus on its customer rather than its competition. That’s one of its four guiding principles along with “passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence and long-term thinking.” Mackey was already using the new company’s jargon and promising “highest quality, experience, convenience and innovation to our customers” in his statement Friday morning.

So it wouldn’t surprise me to see some of Amazon’s other practices creeping into Whole Foods.

The company already is piloting technology at its upcoming AmazonGo store that allows customers to browse the aisles, shop for themselves and leave the store without waiting in a checkout line.

On some purchases. the company offers rewards to its Amazon Prime members when they forgo the two-day shipping. Waiting an extra three-days or so for a package can earn you store credit for PrimePantry, Amazon’s dry goods shipping service.

The new Amazon Books store, too, takes an entirely new approach to merchandising. These stores use 20 years’ worth of Amazon customer data to stock their shelves.

I actually have plans this weekend to spend some time in Amazon’s bookstore in The Shops at Columbus Circle in New York. Until about 9 a.m. Friday, I thought I’d have to go all the way there to see what the online giant has planned for brick-and-mortar’s future. The company has eight of these storefronts open, five more in the works but none yet publicly planned for the Sunshine State.

While I still don’t think we’ll be seeing one of those bookstores in Sarasota anytime soon, Amazon will be here through Whole Foods before we know it.

Hopefully my trip this weekend will give us all a better idea of what’s in store.